1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of extracting juice and peel oil from whole citrus fruit and the separation of the fruit peel, pulp and seeds therefrom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The invention constitutes improvements on the methods and apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. to Hait No. 2,608,152 (issued Aug. 26, 1952), Hait U.S. Pat. No. 2,649,730 (issued Aug. 25, 1953) and Belk and Frost U.S. Pat. No. 2,780,988 (issued Feb. 12, 1957).
The machines of each of the above patents features the use of a cup formed by upper and lower members each of which is formed with spaced finger-like elements, the upper member being positioned directly above the lower member. When a fruit has been fed into the lower cup member, and the upper cup member is moved downwardly with a straight-line movement, the fruit is progressively crushed between the cups while the fingers of the cups interdigitate with each other. After the fruit has been crushed, the upper cup must be raised a considerable distance to allow another fruit to be fed into the lower cup. Thus, the straight-line vertical movement of the upper cup requires a considerable amount of overhead space to accommodate it.
The machine of the present invention makes use of an upper cup member that is mounted for pivotal movement relative to the lower member, and travels only a short distance before fruit can be fed into the lower cup. The short arcuate travel of the upper cup makes possible a fruit feeding and crushing cycle that is shorter in time than the cycle of a machine using a straight-line movement of the upper cup member.